The software Viplan learning system is an aid to learn about Beer's viable system model (VSM) and its application. This is done with the support of the Viplan method. The five activities of this method are explained with examples. First, it offers an approach to understand and discuss organisational identity through analysis of stakeholders. Second, it describes structural modelling of activities, which is followed by the crucial idea in the method of unfolding the organisation's complexity. Fourth, it shows a tool for studying the distribution of resources and discretion in an organisation. Fifth, and finally, it offers a form of relating these resources to the VSM, thus allowing the development of diagnostic points. The paper ends with a short description of the software itself.

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This article looks at the impact that the viability of organisations that own and manage technological systems has on the sustainability of that technology. Specifically, it looks at the role that organisational viability through time plays in linking technology to its operating environment and stakeholders to ensure sustainability. Using three case studies, the authors show how a lack of organisational viability led to technological unsustainability in established industries. Organisational viability is assessed using Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) and this is also used to address the problems of organisational viability through redesigning the system to ensure sustainability.

PurposeThe paper sets out to apply the concepts of cybernetics and the control of probabilistic systems to the issue of performance measurement within organizations.Design/methodology/approachConventional approaches to Performance Measurement have been based on a mechanistic “target‐plan‐variance” model that was introduced into mainstream management practice in the 1950s. It has been subject to criticism from within both the academic and practitioners community over the last 50 years but has proved remarkably resistant to change. Systems ideas, particularly those emanating in the field of cybernetics, have not been successfully applied in this field because, it is argued, the concepts have been misunderstood and falsely blamed for the perceived failings of conventional practice.FindingsThe paper identifies the shortcomings in “tradition” approaches to performance measurement in organizations and demonstrates how the application of cybernetics concepts can address these shortcomings.Originality/valueContrary to received wisdom in parts of the academic community, cybernetics potentially provides the intellectual building‐blocks for a new paradigm, based on a fundamental appreciation of what is required to manage the interdependencies between an organization and its environment and between its constituent parts. It holds the promise of developing a set of practice that is not only more efficient and effective as a control philosophy, but also more sensitive to the human need for self‐determination in the workplace.